An Index to the Names in the Mahabharata, with Short Explanations and a Concordance to the Bombay and Calcutta Editions and P. C. Roy's Translation c5.s1.46

c5.s1.46

Açleṣhā (No. 43; cf. No. 44), a nakṣhatra (the ninth when beginning with Açvinī; its star of junction is supposed to be e Hydra; v. Sū° Si°, p. 188). XIII, 64, 3262 (C. has A°, B. A°) (Anuçaṣanik.) (*°cyān tu yo rūpyam ṛṣhabham vā prayacchati sa sarvabhayanirmuktaḥ sambhavān adhitiṣhṭhati*; “*nakṣhatrayogasya dānakalpam*,” 63, 3212); 89, 4259 (who gives a çrāddha “*açleṣhāyām*” procreates intelligent sons) (çrāddhakalpe); 132, 6162 (Anuçaṣanik.) (C.: *kārttike māsi açleṣhā bahulaç caṣhṭamī çivā*. B. has *bahulasyāṣhṭamī*): on the 8th day of the dark half of the month Kārttika, when the moon is in conjunction with Açleṣhā, a brahman, kṣhattriya, vaiçya, or çūdra may, after having fasted at a çrāddha, after the setting of the sun, deposit an offering of black clothes and unguents with flowers in an ant-hill, begging the serpents to hand it over to the world-elephants to increase their strength that it may be equal to the strength of Viṣhṇu, when he lifted up Earth; the formula is contained in vv. 7163–6; this he should do for a whole year.